Tourists Are Flocking The Chinese Region With The Oldest People In The World

The terms "centenarian" and "cashing in" are rarely used in the
same breath among tourism officials, but that may be changing—at
least in a remote county in the Guangxi Zhuang region
of China.

The mountainous Bama county has been dubbed the "hometown of
longevity" by the International Natural Medicine Society because
it has so many elderly folks: there are 73 centenarians, creating
a ratio of 30.8 per 100,000 (the international standard
meanwhile, is a mere 25 per 100,000).

What's their secret? Apparently, that's what tourists want to
know. According to the Xinhua news
agency, more than 180,000 travelers visited the area over the
recent National Day holiday—up 62 percent compared to last year.

Tourists want to "taste what these centenarians have every day,
and breath in the fresh air we have," says the head of the
tourist board, while one visitor told reporters that he was there
to enjoy "the germ-killing negative oxygen ions in the air."

On the bright side, Bama county officials hope that the emerging
tourist scene, with its growing number of small inns, will help
elevate more locals out of poverty. This should be a growth
industry, too: The county has, in its back pocket, another 252
residents over the age of 90.